A new art and fashion magazine named after the apron-like garment has commissioned 16 top designers – including Lars Nilsson for Bill Blass, Diane von Furstenburg, Nicole Miller, Rebecca Dannenberg and Jil Stuart – to offer their own smock designs for a fashion show next week.

“We told them to be creative,” says Smock magazine publisher Scott Bennett. “If you want a girl to come down the runway and paint the clothes on her, that’s fine.”

Couturiers seem to be quite serious about the whole thing. “A smock is a kind of uniform that has evolved from the strict to the abstract. It is utilitarian in its function,” designer Mark Bouwer told The Post via e-mail. “… fashion designers have taken this shape and deconstructed it to create inspired garments for fashion’s sake.”

In another e-mail, designer Diane von Furstenburg said a smock can be chic because “ease and aesthetics make elegance.”

An invite-only fashion show will be held at the South Street Seaport on June 26.